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ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



NORFOLK AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY 



on the occasion op rra 



FIRST ANNUAL EXHIBITION, 



AT DEDHAM, SEPT. 26, 1849. 



HON. MARSHALL p/ WILDER, 

PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY. 



1 



PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 
1849. 



/ 



At a meeting of the Trustees of the Norfolk Agricultural Society, held at Dedham on the I8th 
ultimo, the following resolution was unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be presented to President Wilder for his able and val- 
uable address delivered on the occasion of the first annual exhibition of the Society, and that the 
Secretary be requested to cause two thousand copies to be printed. One copy each to be delivered 
to the members of the Society, five hundred copies to be reserved for the use of the Society, and the 
balance to be placed in the hauds of the Secretaries to be disposed of as may be deemed expedient. 

Edward L. KtTES, Secretary. 

Dedham, Nov. 5th, 1849. 



COOLIDGE & "WILEY, Pkintebs, 12 Water Street, Boston. 






ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the Society, Friends and Fellow Citizem : 

On the return of the Olympia in ancient Greece, her 
conflicting tribes proclaimed an armistice ; her schol- 
ars left the shades of Academus; her painters dropped 
their pencil; her sculptors their chisel; her shep- 
herds their crook; her agriculturists their mattock; and 
all uniting in the celebration, beheld with wonder and 
delight the skill and success of competitors for prizes. 
So, except as we are actuated by higher and nobler mo- 
tives, we have suspended our divers pursuits, the cares, 
toils and conflicts of business, and have come up here 
to-day, from city and country, to celebrate the first anni- 
versary of our Association. 

We meet to interchange salutations, to promote in- 
dustry, invention, and improvement, not in agriculture 
alone, but in all the useful and ornamental arts of which 
she is the common mother; to instruct, aid, and encour- 
age each other, and to reward superior merit and skill. 

The present is not a mere gala day, when the refined 
and fashionable of all professions assemble for the grat- 
ification of curiosity, or vain amusement; but a day 
when working men assemble to work; to exhibit the 
results of their labor ; to explain the processes of their 
manufacture or growth ; to teach and to be taught how 
the greatest amount and the best quality of the various 
productions of the soil and the arts can be realized from 
the least labor and expense, and in the shortest space 



of time. Such is the drama we have assembled to 
perform. Each has his part in it. You have assigned 
me the prelude, a part which is attended with consider- 
able difficulty, especially to one not much accustomed 
to elaborate composition : yet I comfort myself with the 
assurance that its defects, and even itself, are generally 
forgotten in the interest which the play and the after- 
piece awaken. 

I ask your indulgence while I speak to you of Agri- 
culture ; the parent of all arts, the primary source of in- 
dividual and national wealth, independence, and power. 

Of its history, I shall speak but briefly. Its origin 
was ascribed by the ancients to fabulous heroes and 
heroines; by the Egyptians to Osiris; by the Greeks to 
Ceres and Triptolemus ; by the Latins to Janus; and by 
the Chinese to Chin-hong, successor to Fo-hi; but the 
earliest correct account is from that book of books, which 
divine wisdom exempts from all mistakes. From this 
we learn that the cultivation of the soil was the primitive 
pursuit of man. God placed Adam in Eden, "to till the 
ground," "to dress and to keep the garden " ; but a gar- 
den, in the proper acceptation of the term, is only a field 
which labor has highly cultivated, and taste embellished. 

I will not delay on the questions, more curious than 
useful, whether every vegetable form sprang from its 
own seed; whether some of them originated from a 
principle of vegetable life infused into the soil itself, 
when God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass;" 
whether weeds, thistles, briars, and thorns existed be- 
fore the fall ; or whether the ground would have yield- 
ed more bountifully, and with less labor, if man had 
not incurred the displeasure of the Almighty. Let 
men of science and leisure examine and solve these 
problems. Be it our employment rather to practise 
this art, to turn it to the highest and best account for 



the support of mankind, and the amelioration of their 
condition. 

Of the descendants of our first parents, Cain was a 
"tiller of the ground;" Noah was an husbandman, 
who perpetuated the art among his posterity, as they 
came down from Mount Ararat upon the plains of As- 
syria, and divided the earth among them. Abraham 
and Lot had their respective herdsmen and pastures; 
Job had oxen, asses, sheep, and camels, and servants 
to keep them; and Jacob sent down into Egypt to 
purchase corn of his unknown Joseph. Elijah found 
Elisha ploughing in the field with twelve yoke of oxen. 
Of king David's principal workmen, one had the charge 
of the field, the tilling of the ground ; another, of the 
vineyard ; and Solomon, his son and successor, plant- 
ed orchards and vineyards, and classed these pursuits 
" among the delights of the sons of men." We also 
read in the Scriptures of the various operations of wa- 
tering, ploughing, reaping, threshing, winnovving with 
the shovel, and with the fan or sieve ; of digging hills 
with a mattock, and of various agricultural productions, 
as corn, oil, fruits, milk, honey, and butter. 

On the settlement of Canaan, each tribe received its 
inheritance, and each head of a family his portion by 
lot, and this he held by absolute right; and if this prim- 
itive system had been perpetuated, would it not have 
prevented that inequality in landed possessions, from 
which have resulted neglect of cultivation, consequent 
scarcity and starvation, which have given a sad distinc- 
tion to the recent history of some parts of Europe? 

Passing from these scenes of sacred association, would 
time permit we might trace the history of this noble 
art among the nations of antiquity. From Egypt, 
first in arts and first in letters, it passed through Phoeni- 
cia to Greece, where it employed the gifted mind of a 
Democritus, a Xenophon, an Aristotle, a Theophrastus, 



and a Hesiod. From Greece, it was wafted on the 
wave of emigration to the banks of the Tiber, to 
Rome, mistress of the world, who planted it after her 
conquests, in all her colonies. Her consuls could wield 
the sword in war, and hold the plough in peace. Her 
Cincinnatus returned in honor from the battle field to 
his farm. Her Cato, himself a farmer, the son of a 
farmer, retired daily from his legal pursuits of the morn- 
ing to his fields, "where, with a plain cloak over his 
shoulders in winter, and almost naked in summer, he 
labored with his servants, till they had concluded their 
tasks, after which he sat down with them at table, eating 
the same bread and drinking the same wine." The 
Georgics of her Virgil are a compend of the most ap- 
proved methods of cultivation among the Greeks and 
Romans, and are worthy of the high rank which they 
hold in the educational systems of our day. 

Upon the fall of the Roman empire, agriculture 
slumbered during the night of the dark ages, till the 
star of the reformation dawned upon the world. Then 
the seed which the ancient Romans carried into Brit- 
ain, and that also which they scattered on their way 
thither in other countries, sprang up and bore fruit. 
But it was not until near the middle of the sixteenth 
century that the first English treatise on husbandry 
appeared, a little more than half a century before our 
Puritan fathers brought it with them to America. 

From the commencement of the nineteenth century, 
we can speak of Agriculture as a science, and within the 
last thirty years, it has received the attention of learned 
and scientific men. The geological and agricultural 
surveys which have been made in many of our states, 
have furnished materials for a work on the application 
of science to this art, whenever some master-spirit shall 
arise to give them form and order, and to deduce from 
them such practical results as shall reduce the opera- 



tions of the farmer to rules as definite and useful as 
any that govern the mechanic arts. 

But, before the yeomanry of New England will avail 
themselves of such results, they must acquire just ideas 

Of THE DIGNITY AND IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE. 

It is second to no other pursuit in origin, in resource, 
in productiveness and salutary influence. The man 
who discovers a process whereby a bog, a sandy plain, 
or a gravelly hill may be made a fruitful field or garden, 
is as truly a benefactor of his race, as a Columbus, a 
Newton, a Franklin, or a Fulton. He who shall dis- 
cover an easy method for the extirpation of the curculio, 
and other insects injurious to vegetation ; or an effectual 
remedy for the disease which has some years proved 
more fatal to the potato, than the cholera to mankind, 
will send his name down to posterity honorably asso- 
ciated with that of Hippocrates, Galen, and Harvey. 

The importance of this art we can never accurately 
appreciate, until we can estimate the results of com- 
merce and the other great industrial pursuits which de- 
pend upon it ; until we can calculate the benefits which 
have resulted to our country and the world from the 
cultivation of cotton and of indian corn ; the forests 
it has cleared and made to bud and blossom like the 
rose ; the thousands it has raised from penury to afflu- 
ence, and the millions it has fed and clothed. 

That nation is wise, which requires in all her subjects 
a sufficient knowledge of this art, to enable them to 
derive their subsistence from the soil ; for she thereby 
provides not only for their support, but for their health, 
independence, and happiness. No father should con- 
sider his son well educated, till he knows how to gain 
his support from the soil ; and no mother, her daughter, 
however accomplished in all other respects, until she 
knows how to make good bread. And as our shrewd 



young men are beginning to understand that something 
is requisite beside a little Music and French to make 
a good wife, so let our daughters learn that kid-gloved 
and silk-vested dandies, who can measure stay, tape, and 
bobbin, and act well their part at a levee, do not always 
make better husbands than our young farmers, with 
their hard hands, but noble hearts. 

Without derogating from the importance and dignity 
of any other pursuit, we would have the attention of 
all classes in the community turned far more than it 
now is to Agriculture. If our wives and daughters 
were to spend a few hours every day among the fruits 
and flowers of our gardens, such exercise in the open 
air would reduce their liability to curvature of the 
spine and pulmonary disease, and would give them 
a firmer constitution, better health, and longer life. 
Similar blessings would be realized by our sons, if, in 
their preparation for mercantile and professional pur- 
suits, they were to pass a year or two in the practice of 
this art. 

Thus educated, our bankrupt merchants, our minis- 
ters, lawyers, and physicians, whom professional care 
and labor have prostrated, would never be without the 
means of an honorable support, and the recovery of 
health and competency. Bronchitis, and other diseases 
of sedentary men have been cured by farming ; and if 
the experiment were tried oftener, instead of a voyage 
to Europe, we have no doubt but its success would 
render it a popular panacea. 

But this, like every other vocation, requires education, 
theoretical and practical knowledge ; and although the 
acquisitions in early life were but small, subsequent 
observations would increase the amount, so as to fur- 
nish the means of comfortable subsistence. 

We have long thought that no volume except the 
spelling-book and the Bible, could be more important 



in our common schools than an elementary treatise on 
Agriculture. We rejoice in the publication of several 
such works, eminently adapted to our youth, and wor- 
thy to be introduced into all our seminaries of learning ; 
and we hope this important measure will attract the 
early attention of our zealous laborers in the vast field 
of general education. 

Men may overlook or underrate the knowledge of 
this art to be derived from books, but let our scientific 
farmers illustrate its advantage; and prejudice, if it 
exist, will vanish and pass away like the morning 
cloud and early dew. Let them but vie with the me- 
chanic and manufacturer, who, when a discovery is 
made by which labor and time are saved, turn it to 
their own advantage, not for the purpose of obtaining 
exorbitant prices, but to increase production at so low 
a rate as to encourage consumption, and thereby secure 
a safe and ready market. 

Let our farmers, I say, imitate their example, and 
the wheels of enterprise in agriculture will soon be 
heard running on a parallel track with the car of im- 
provement in any other art or science. The farmer 
should be a pioneer in reform, the first to avail himself 
of inventions ; but in some parts of the world he is 
still turning up mother earth with a wooden spade. 
We need not however go to foreign lands for illustra- 
tion. Within our own recollection a farmer purchased 
an iron plough, and after sufficient use of it to learn its 
superiority and advantages, urged his neighbors to 
imitate his example, but they declined ; nor could they 
be persuaded till by the loan of his own plough, he at 
the same time turned over their soil and their prejudice, 
and introduced the improvement among them. 

Such prejudices, we rejoice to say, have at length 
yielded to the march of improvement in the use of 
better implements, and of labor-saving machines for 



10 



planting, sowing, raking, threshing, ploughing, with the 
double plough, as we have seen to-day, and in other 
parts of our country with the steam plough, turning up 
fifty acres per day. 

The watchword of the age is, "Onward"', and he who 
cultivates the soil, if he would prosper, must move 
simultaneously with his brethren of other trades and 
professions, for his interest is their interest, and he as 
well as the manufacturer and the mechanic may still 
have to compete with the pauper labor of Europe. 
" The Plough, the Loom, and the Anvil " * must work 
together and aid each other in this noble competition, 
and then if our government will not protect them, then 
own enterprise will, and success is sure. 

Let other countries, more limited in their geographical 
extent and physical resources, and oppressed by the 
aristocracy of blood and wealth, countries to which 
nature has denied the essential elements of indepen- 
dence, so bountifully bestowed on the United States, 
shape their national policy as they may ; be it our wis- 
dom to develope our natural resources, by a conservative 
legislation, without regard to party politics, and to en- 
courage by measures liberal and discreet, no privileged 
art or profession, but all the great industrial pursuits of 
our happy land. 

Let us look well to the foundation of the temple of 
liberty ; to the arts which are primary ; to the education 
and useful employment of the whole. 

Directing our course by this chart, one of the first 
objects which claim our attention, is, the application of 

SCIENCE TO AGRICULTURE. 

The practical skill already evinced by some of our 

* Allusion is here made to " The Plough, The Loom, and The Anvil," a 
most valuable monthly, edited by that veteran in the Cause of Agriculture, 
John S. Skinner, Esq., Philadelphia. 



11 



farmers is worthy of all commendation ; yet the art can 
never be raised to its proper standard of dignity, without 
the aid of scientific men ; nor until the public mind 
shall be convinced that it is a study of far higher order, 
than it has hitherto been esteemed, and at least equal 
in usefulness to any that has engaged the attention of 
mankind. Prejudice and extreme caution have pre- 
vailed against new theories and " book-farming" and it 
is not to be denied that mistakes have been made by 
chemists and other writers ; but one cause of this has 
been, a deduction of general principles, without an in- 
vestigation of facts, sufficient in number and variety. 

There are certain natural laws which one fact may 
develope and settle as well as a thousand ; but there are 
others, quite numerous and important in agriculture, 
which scientific analysis or long and careful observation 
alone, can enable us to discover and usefully to apply. 
To the first, belong the constitution of the atmosphere 
and of water, the two elements which are essential 
conditions of vegetable life, and which chemistry teach- 
es us are nearly the same in all latitudes and places on 
the globe ; but to the second, belong the constitution of 
the different kinds of soil and manure, and of various 
vegetable productions, and the adaptation of the two 
former to the growth of the latter. 

To unfold these processes of the vegetable kingdom, 
to show by what agents they are conducted, by what 
laws regulated, and how the whole may be turned to 
the greatest account to the farmer, with the least labor 
and expense, are problems, for the solution of which 
agriculture must depend on the natural sciences. The 
high province of this art, Cowper affirms, with as much 
philosophy as poetry, is 

•' To study culture, and with artful toil, 
To meliorate and tame the stubborn soil, 
To give dissimilar, yet fruitful lands, 
The grain, the herb, the plant — that each demands." 



12 



The farmer has too often shut his eyes to the light of 
these sciences, but they are as intimately connected 
with his calling as with any other pursuit. Without 
their aid, where would have been most of the inventions 
of the last quarter of a century, that now astonish and 
revolutionize the world! 

We do not say that he should be an adept in these, 
we only insist that his knowledge of them, should be 
somewhat commensurate with their natural and neces- 
sary connection with his vocation ; that he should know 
there is some philosophy in his business, and that his 
art does not consist altogether in ploughing, sowing and 
reaping. 

Farmers, you yourselves desire your children to learn 
to read, and for this purpose provide them with books, 
schools and instructors, and as a primary condition of 
success you expect them to learn the alphabet. Apply 
this principle to your own pursuits. What is the al- 
phabet of agriculture? Is it made up of pictures of a 
hoe, a spade, a plough, a scythe, or a rake ? Its proper 
nomenclature consists of such terms as germination, 
nutrition, disintegration, composition, decomposition, 
and similar terms, of which most have some idea, but 
which very few can accurately define. 

Ask your neighbor why he changes his crops ? Why 
he turns his fields to fallow ? Why they do not yield 
as bountifully as at first ? He replies, " they need rest," 
"they have run out." A very sage remark ! But how 
few can give the satisfactory answer ; namely, that the 
fertilizing elements of the soil have been exhausted 
by continual cropping. Ask many of our most intelli- 
gent cultivators on what mainly depends their suc- 
cess. They answer, "on a judicious rotation of crops." 
Another very wise reply ! But how few can explain 
the why and the wherefore of it. Of this, the many 
know no more than they do of the philosophy of 



13 



an eclipse or the occultation of the satellites of Ju- 
piter. 

Is it wonderful then that Farmer Higgins did think 
that ammonia and magnesia were the daughters of 
Victoria ; that the phosphates and nitrates were tribes 
of Indians ; and that gypsum was the Queen of Gyp- 
sies! Why should he be expected to know better? He 
never perhaps read a treatise or heard a lecture on Ag- 
riculture, and as to Chemistry and some of the other 
sciences, they were born since he was educated. If 
these facts call for censure, let him not be blamed ; the 
true error lies with the public, with those that laugh at 
his ignorance, and who are too often in the condition of 
the mechanic, who appended to the directions on a 
guide-board for crossing a ferry, the following very par- 
ticular notice : ' ; N. B. Them as can't read, had better go 
round by the bridge." 

Let none suppose we undervalue experience, which 
as a guide is commonly more safe and useful than 
progressive. Science is experience systematized and 
trained for progress, and we do not transcend the ap- 
propriate province of agriculture, when we insist that 
the farmer should understand something of the use of 
the crucible as well as of the plough. 

By the application of chemistry to agriculture, the 
crops in some parts of Europe have been more than 
doubled. Of this, therefore, as well as of geology, botany 
and mechanics, he should not be altogether ignorant; 
and if he will add to his literary acquisitions some 
knowledge of meteorology, it will abate his veneration 
for weatherwise maxims, and embolden him to sow his 
grain in the old, as well as the new of the moon, and 
to kill his beef and pork without regard to the tide. 

We live and move in a world of wonders. Every 
blade of grass, every leaf that flutters in the breeze, and 
every germ is an organized and living body. Every 



14 



plant and vegetable is as capable as the human system 
of imbibing and digesting its appropriate food, and al- 
though it becomes me to speak with modesty on a 
subject in which I myself am but a learner, yet allow 
me to say that the application of science to this art, has 
already settled many of the laws, that regulate the 
growth of trees and plants, with a certainty approxi- 
mating that which attends the calculations of the as- 
tronomer. 

For instance, by an analysis of wheat, we ascertain 
its ingredients and the food it requires for growth and 
productiveness. We know that it needs phosphate of 
lime, and that it is useless to attempt its cultivation 
where the soil is wholly deficient in this element. 
Hence we are as competent to feed a crop of wheat, 
as a flock of sheep, or a brood of chickens, but with- 
out this knowledge, which science alone can furnish, 
we might apply a kind of manure which would be in- 
jurious and perhaps destructive. But suppose, however, 
such food be not administered, that the ground is pre- 
pared, and the grain sown ; it may flourish for a season, 
because it may find its proper nutriment in the soil, but 
let it be sown year after year, and it will prove less and 
less productive, and ultimately fail. 

It has been the practice in countries producing wine, 
to bury the primings of the vine at its root ; and chem- 
ical analysis has lately discovered, that it contains a 
large proportion of potash, which is essential to its 
growth and productiveness. Again, it has long been 
known, that a tree planted in a soil, in which one of the 
same species has previously grown, will flourish but 
poorly. Why is this? If a chemist analyzes both the 
tree and the soil, the former will be found to contain, 
and to require for its growth and fruitfulness, elements 
of which the latter is deficient. Hence we learn with 
what kind of material that soil should be fertilized. 



15 



We have seen instances also, in which barnyard manure 
had been so abundantly applied as to retard or prevent 
vegetation, and where sand, gravel, virgin loam or clay 
was worth more to that soil than these manures ; and 
we have seen other instances in which mineral manures, 
as lime, had been so profusely applied as to lose all effi- 
cacy. Why was it? Chemical analysis affords the 
reply, and discovers to us that the soil was surcharged 
with these elements, and makes known the materials, 
and the proportion requisite to revive productive energy. 

It is too late, in the progress of improvement, to de- 
nounce or anathematize these sciences. Though yet in 
their infancy, they have achieved wonders, and are des- 
tined to still greater results. There are departments of 
knowledge, important to the agriculturist, which they 
have hardly entered — such, for the most part, as their 
application to the cure of the various diseases to which 
the vegetable kingdom is subject. We need here a 
materia medica, and science must provide it; books 
which shall treat more fully of the diseases of plants, 
and which shall prescribe appropriate remedies, yea, 
which shall guard and preserve our vines from the bugs, 
our plums from the curculio, and our potatoes from 
infection. We have physicians for our horses and cattle, 
why not for our potatoes and wheat ? Are not diseases 
in both the result of unnatural action, of agents which 
may be counteracted, of poisons which have their 
proper antidotes ? Is there a disease, for which nature 
provides no remedy? 

If by the application of science to agriculture, we 
can fathom the depths of nature, and bring up to the 
light, for the admiration and the benefit of mankind, 
her previously hidden treasures, shall we hesitate to do 
it? Or, if others, fired with greater zeal, and endowed 
with more ample means, venture into the labyrinths of 
science, explore the springs of nature, learn how her 



16 



curious machinery acts, and then returning, unfold and 
explain her various processes, and teach how to prac- 
tise art more successfully, shall we refuse to avail our- 
selves of the benefits of their labor? 

What vast quantities of vegetable and mineral ma- 
nures now lie buried in the earth, which might, by the 
application of these sciences, be appropriated to the fer- 
tilization of the soil ! 

The importance of Manures to the success of the 
farmer, entitles them to a distinct notice. 

By a natural law every tree, plant, and herb, from 
the cedar of Lebanon, to the flag on the Nile ; from the 
loftiest oak of the forest, to the humblest daisy of the 
meadow; from the fantastic parasite luxuriating in sol- 
stitial air, to the little flower that peeps from Alpine 
snows; everything endowed with vegetable life, requires 
its own peculiar aliment to sustain its vigor, and promote 
its growth. However varied this sustenance may be, 
and whether derived from earth, air or water, if it be 
withheld, or mixed with uncongenial elements, deterio- 
ration and decay are inevitable. 

Gradation and change for the better or worse are 
continually taking place. Soon the rich livery which 
now clothes the fields will be exchanged for the decom- 
posing matter, which in other forms and transitions* 
shall give stimulus and health to a new generation. 

" Another race, the following spring supplies, 
They fall successive, and successive rise." 

Even the flinty rock becomes disintegrated, furnishing 
the slender grass and grain with their silicious coats of 
mail ; the rough granite too yields up its store of inor- 
ganic food, and these commingling with the fertilizing 
treasures that lie buried in the earth, are, with nice adap- 
tation gradually prepared, in the laboratory of nature, 



17 



for the development and support of the more than eighty 
thousand species of plants that spring from her bosom. 

Here, as with animal life, one principle runs through 
the whole, calling for the restoration of that strength 
and fertility which were reduced by vegetation and 
production. Inexhaustible fertility is a chimera of the 
imagination. Sooner or later the prairie and the richest 
alluvial soil, will require a return of the nutritive ma- 
terials which have been abstracted by vegetation. 
However fertile our fields at first, the inevitable conse- 
quence of the annual removal of the crops is a reduc- 
tion of the elements upon which growth and fruitfulness 
depend, and without a restoration of these, sterility will 
ensue. We have seen fields so completely exhausted 
that their renovation became a work of years. But for 
the annual inundations of the Nile, its banks would 
long ago have been as barren as the deserts of Arabia, 
and in some old countries, instances are not rare, where 
territory which once supported a large and thriving pop- 
ulation, has become barren and desolate. 

Nature yields kindly to the full extent of her ability, 
but there is a point beyond which she refuses to give the 
increase. This is as true now, as it was in the days of 
Moses, when the land every seventh year was to enjoy 
a season of rest ; and it has ever been a maxim of ex- 
perience. More than two thousand years ago, the 
Romans practised on this principle, and were well 
acquainted with nearly all the fertilizers now in use. 
Xenophon and Varro speak of ploughing in crops to en- 
rich the soil; Theophrastus, Virgil, and others, of various 
manures, particularly ashes, an article too much neg- 
lected in our day; Pliny, of the preservation of manure 
in pits; Columella, of covering them for a similar 
purpose, and of the impropriety of carrying more into 
the field than could be ploughed in at once ; and Cato, 
of the advantage of making a large quantity, and of 
2 



18 



keeping it carefully. Remember that, gentlemen ; keep 
it carefully. 

It is principally upon manures, that the farmer of 
New England must depend for the productiveness of 
his soil. Hence the best method of manufacturing, 
preserving, and applying this article, the adaptation of 
its varieties to different soils and crops are of the utmost 
importance; and to encourage attention to these our 
Society has offered liberal premiums. 

Our farmers cannot generally afford to purchase ma- 
nures, nor is this necessary except where the soil is 
deficient in some mineral or other quality, essential 
to the production of certain kinds of crops. But with 
due attention to the accumulation and preservation of 
all that can be acquired from the fields, herds, and other 
sources, even where there are no beds of peat, and no 
mineral manures, sufficient may be acquired to keep 
the soil in a productive state. It is the farmer's busi- 
ness to make manures, and not to purchase them. 

Of the different kinds, of their manufacture, adapta- 
tion, and application, it would be gratifying to speak did 
space permit. Suffice it however to say, that there are 
two methods of practice on all these points ; one is by 
the slow process of personal experience, the other is by 
chemical analysis which leads at once to the desired 
result. 

Suppose that in either way the farmer adds twenty- 
five per cent, to the fertility, and consequently to the 
products of his farm, (an amount less than that which 
may be realized by many cultivators ;) and suppose also 
that a corresponding result were secured throughout the 
country, how much have you advanced the agriculture 
of the land ? 

Look, for instance, at the crop of hay in the United 
States, which last year was worth, at eight dollars per 
ton, one hundred and twenty-seven millions of dollars, or of 



19 



the product of Indian corn, which (for A. D. 1848) at 
fifty cents per bushel would amount to nearly three hun- 
dred millions of dollars. This year, by this hypothesis, 
these would be increased, the former thirty millions, and 
the latter seventy-Jive millions of dollars. But if we 
accumulate all the products of the ground, we do not 
ascertain the full benefit of this increase of fertility and 
productiveness ; because the expense of cultivation is 
not increased in the same proportion as the production ; 
labor is saved, and therefore high cultivation is the best 
economy. Multiplying the productions of the country 
is better than extending its boundary and increasing its 
territory ; because it adds to its wealth and power, with- 
out enlarging its frontier, and of course the expense of 
its defence. 

We talk of our tariff and revenue, which have occu- 
pied our ablest statesmen, excited the public mind, and 
convulsed the nation ; and we have thought these sub- 
jects worthy of the treasure, the talent, and the time 
devoted to them ; but if the fertility of our soil were 
increased, and of course the productions, only two per 
cent, the addition would more than equal the whole 
revenue of the nation. 

If any one inquire, Where is this fertility to be found? 
Our reply is, There, where it is now throion away. A 
careful observation will convince any cultivator that a 
larger quantity of manure is annually wasted in this 
Commonwealth than is turned to any valuable account. 

Farmer Tuttle thinks a drain quite as essential to his 
barnyard as to his cellar; and Mr. Goodman his neigh- 
bor annually clears his yard, stables, and vaults, during 
the Indian summer, and lays their contents in small 
heaps upon his green sward and tillage, where by evap- 
oration and leaching it loses most of its virtue ; and 
there it remains till spring, because his father did so be- 
fore him, and left him the assurance, which accords well 



20 



with his own experience, that it then spreads more 
easily, and mingles more readily with the soil. And 
how often do we meet in our travels, instances where 
the manures of the stable and barnyard have lain for 
months exposed to the sun, wind and storm; where 
the soluble ingredients have been either leached into a 
pond, there to waste their very quintessence on the 
desert air, or to trickle down the gutters of the roadside, 
to fertilize catnip, tansy and wormwood. 

These cases are not so frequent as formerly, and we 
cannot too highly commend the excellent and praise- 
worthy example of some of our farmers, in the erection 
of substantial structures, not only suited to the conven- 
ience and comfort of stock, but particularly adapted to 
the preservation and increase of manures. The protec- 
tion of these by shelter or some kind of covering from 
the vicissitudes of the weather, is as important as the 
proper storage of our hay and grain. 

The waste from this cause alone is enormous. By 
an analysis recently made at the English Agricultural 
College, it appeared that manures exposed in the yard 
in the ordinary way, lost more than half of their fertiliz- 
ing properties when compared with those which had 
been sheltered. 

Another waste which cannot be too highly reprobated 
results from the excessive heating of manures and the 
escape of their gases. The effluvia which arises from 
our stables and compost beds, when under fermentation, 
is the very life and stimulus of vegetation ; and the 
amazing loss thus occasioned, may be readily apprecia- 
ted by the odor which sometimes pervades a whole 
neighborhood. How often do we see these gases rising 
like a column of smoke, burning up the most essential 
and active elements, and leaving only the cage, the bird 
having escaped. Here one general direction must suf- 
fice, which is, mix with the manures while in fermenta- 



21 



tion proper absorbents, such as charcoal, clay, or gypsum, 
for the retention of these elements; and when in a 
warm and active state, let them be mingled or covered 
as soon as possible with the soil they are to fertilize. 

No branch of agriculture is more important than the 
manufacture, preservation and application of manures; 
neither is there any in which reform is more necessary. 

Intimately connected with these, are the Arts of 
Cultivation, as ploughing, subsoiling, trenching, and 
draining, which are receiving the attention of this So- 
ciety. 

On the first of these, we cannot refrain from an ex- 
pression of our opinion in favor of deep ploughing and 
thorough pulverization of the soil. The productiveness 
of new lands is proverbial; and this, deep ploughing 
will in a measure furnish, although to equal them in fer- 
tility, an additional quantity of manure may be requisite. 
Any farmer who believes in the necessity of spading 
deeply his garden, cannot doubt the utility of deep 
ploughing ; and this will be still more evident if he will 
examine the roots of plants, and observe the depth to 
which they extend in such soils. We have known the 
roots of a strawberry plant to penetrate three feet, and the 
consequence was the greatest luxuriance and fruitful- 
ness. The aphorism of the old Roman should be the 
maxim of all farmers, Plough! Plough!! Plough!!! 
And most earnestly do we hope, since they have gen- 
erally ceased (we speak it to their praise,) from deep 
drinking, they will turn to deep ploughing, and we will 
only add that we think sub-soil ploughing worthy of all 
the commendation it has received. 

When we consider the thousands of acres which at 
present he waste in this county and Commonwealth? 
and which, at a small expenditure, might be reclaimed 
and converted into fertile fields, we cannot but add also 



. 22 

our testimony in favor of draining, as among the most 
important and profitable improvements of our day. 

" In grounds, by art laid dry, the aqueous bane, 
That marred the wholesome herbs, is turned to use ; 
And drains, while drawing noxious vapors off, 
Serve also to diffuse a due supply.'-' 

This is especially suitable in low, wet grounds, as 
meadows, bogs and swamps, which frequently consist 
of deep soil capable of equalling in fertility the richest 
alluvial land. We have in mind an example in this im- 
mediate vicinity, where a gentleman drained a meadow 
not previously worth twenty dollars per acre, and the 
grass it yielded not repaying the mower, and where the 
crop the very first year more than met the whole ex- 
pense of the operation, and raised the value of the land 
to two hundred dollars per acre. 

In England and Scotland draining and subsoiling 
have caused a complete revolution in farming, and con- 
verted into rich and valuable lands millions of acres 
which were but mere bogs and fens. 

On these topics and others contained in the Society's 
Premium List, we cannot enlarge ; but we hope they 
will receive the attention which their importance de- 
mands. 

We will only add, that Fruits and Fruit Trees are 
worthy of special attention, because they relate to pro- 
ducts in which our farmers can most readily compete 
with larger cultivators in other parts of our land, and 
which will always be requisite for the supply of our 
home market. 

Did time permit it would be interesting to survey the 
various branches of domestic manufactures, in some of 
which this county is without a rival, as in Straw Braid 
and Bonnets, the amount of which by the statistics of 
1845, was six hundred and forty-five thousand dollars, 



23 



being more than all that was made in the rest of the 
Commonwealth, if not in the country. We regret that 
we cannot speak of the benefits to be derived from the 
soiling of cattle, and from the raising of root crops as 
food for them ; of clearing, reclaiming and enclosing 
land, of securing the best breeds of stock, and of pro- 
ducing others better than any that now exist; and of 
other subjects which are worthy of the attention and 
encouragement of this Association. 

Before we conclude, however, we must be allowed to 
speak of that, which is vital to the success of our whole 
enterprise, — agricultural education. 

The low condition of this, compared with the enter- 
prise and zeal for improvement in other departments of 
action, demands for it a hearing and place on all occasions 
like the present. 

One of the greatest embarrassments of the farmer is 
the want of a proper education for his calling. In other 
arts and professions we employ only those who are 
properly trained for their business. The reason is evi- 
dent. We do not expect others to succeed. But why 
do we not apply the same logic and practical sense to 
agriculture? We do not encourage an uneducated 
physician or a mechanic who is not master of his trade; 
why then do we expect men to succeed in farming who 
know no more of the nature of soils, nor of the adapta- 
tion of different species of manures to the various kinds 
of grain, grass, vegetables, and fruits, than they do of the 
rotation of day and night, or the seasons in one of the 
newly discovered planets? 

I cheerfully admit that there are honorable exceptions 
in this county and in other parts of our land — farmers 
who have brought science to bear on their practice ; 
who succeed, and even acquire wealth, while others 
destitute of such knowledge are oppressed with poverty 



24 



always in doubt and mystery, and blown about by every 
wind of doctrine. 

Education makes the difference ; the former have 
some knowledge of the adaptation of manures and 
crops to their soils, and of the best systems of rotation, 
and of cultivation. But the latter work at the other end 
of the lever, and vainly endeavor to supply the lack of 
mental culture by physical power. 

They plough and sow, but alas, for the reaping! 
Where they might have gathered an abundant harvest 
they obtain scarce enough to pay their labor; they sup- 
ply the deficiency by mortgaging their farms which they 
imagine have run out ; they talk of a change of busi- 
ness, but suspect not the real cause of their embarrass- 
ment, and of course discover not the remedy till their 
farms are gone and with them the opportunity for 
amendment. The knowledge which thev might have 
acquired in early life, or during those long winter even- 
ings which are too often passed in idleness and foolish 
chit-chat, might have prevented their failure and con- 
ducted them to eminence and affluence. 

Why have so many of our sons forsaken the farm, 
for the office, the counting-room, the warehouse, and the 
professions? Why such, a rush by sea and land from 
the homes of their childhood, for the glittering dust of 
California ? Why have they not retained 

" That fond attachment to the well known place, 
Where first they started into life's lono; race, 
Which keeps its hold with such unfailing sway, 
We feel it e'en in age and at our latest day ? " 

Alas ! What has driven them from the homestead 
overshadowed by the elms which their fathers planted, 
and under which in their boyhood they wrought out so 
many youthful wonders ? Why eat they no longer the 
" Old Nonesuch," or quench their thirst from the " old 



25 



oaken bucket ? " Why ? For that lack of interest and 
skill in farming, which would have rendered it as lucra- 
tive and honorable as other pursuits, and which educa- 
tion alone can supply. Such examples which have 
fallen under our own observation, create a demand 
which I only reiterate, when I say that our farmers 
must be educated. 

" But our fathers were not educated, yet they were 
successful farmers." True, but they possessed advanta- 
ges which we cannot enjoy; then the soil was new, 
and of course more productive; now when its fertility 
has been diminished by successive crops, it must be 
restored and increased" by artificial processes, to the suc- 
cess of which knowledge is indispensable. Besides, 
the progress of the other arts enables men to realize 
better profits than they then received, and correspond- 
ing improvements not having been made in agriculture, 
labor has here been less liberally rewarded. 

" But we have seen your book-farmers, your deep 
ploughing, your highly recommended sub-soil plough 
turning up the stones, clay and gravel; we have seen 
your recipes for manufacturing manure, and have tried 
your nostrums for the destruction of insects with fatal 
effect, for they destroyed not only the bugs but also our 
vines." What do such ridiculous incidents prove? 
Simply, that there are men of little sense, and men of 
no sense in this as well as in every other vocation ; 
and they are painful illustrations of the necessity of a 
thorough education in agriculture; they teach us that a 
little learning is a dangerous thing, and exhort us to 
drink deep at the Pierian spring. 

Others insist that common sense alone is needful. But 
common sense such as they recommend, is a very un- 
common thing ; yet if it were possessed by all, why 
not rely upon it to make skillful mechanics, artists and 
teachers, as well as farmers? When common sense 



26 



can manufacture a steam engine, construct a railroad, 
or teach mathematics, we may expect it, without the 
aid of science, to conduct successfully the operations of 
the farm. 

Till then, let us not rely upon common sense for 
miracles, nor offer it as an apology for ignorance or idle- 
ness. Common sense is as valuable as it is rare, but 
let us remember that it never yet made a plough or 
planted an orchard, till it was properly instructed. 

The standard of agricultural education, then, must 
be raised at least to a level with that of other professions. 
Individual health and happiness, the welfare of the 
Commonwealth and country require it. Who can esti- 
mate its importance to the nation ? I repeat it, agricul- 
ture, commerce, manufactures, and the arts, are all 
co-ordinates, separate links in one vast chain. 

Our country boasts of men who have distinguished 
themselves in arts, letters and morals; of men whose 
fame is our inheritance and glory. We are proud of the 
name of Rittenhouse in astronomy, of Franklin in phi- 
losophy, of West, Allston and others in the fine arts, and 
in politics of John Hancock, of Patrick Henry, of Samuel 
Adams, of John Adams, and of his illustrious son, John 
Quincy Adams, and not least of Fisher Ames, who 
gives to this town an enviable distinction, whose hand 
planted many of the beautiful elms that adorn this 
village, and whose bounty distributed trees among his 
fellow citizens, of the fruit of which its present inhabi- 
tants partake. 

But where are the men whose names will go down 
to posterity honorably associated with these in the art 
or science of agriculture ? True, we might speak of 
the farmer of Mount Vernon, who first called the atten- 
tion of Congress to this subject — of Washington, whose 
name awakens the most grateful sensations in all our 
hearts ; of the farmer of Monticello, whose genius first 



27 



gave proper curvature to the mould board of the plough, 
and whose taste for rural life sought gratification in the 
perusal of his favorite classics in the bowers of his gar- 
den, with the earliest songsters of the morning; of 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, and Madison, and of 
other worthies, distinguished in this art, whose names 
are embalmed in the memory of their grateful country- 
men. 

But passing in silent veneration many in other parts 
of our land, whose contributions to this cause have se- 
cured to them a durable fame, we have only space to 
refer to a few who have distinguished our Common- 
wealth and neighborhood : to Timothy Pickering, whose 
sage maxims more than thirty years ago on deep plough- 
ing, pulverization of the soil, and kindred topics, evince 
great practical wisdom, and are unrivalled by any more 
recent discoveries; to John Lowell, who united with 
legal knowledge and general science, a remarkable 
taste for agriculture, and contributed perhaps more liber- 
ally by his pen and resources than any other citizen of 
his day to its advancement ; to Thomas Greene Fessen- 
den, whose indefatigable labors as editor of the New 
England Farmer, conferred numerous and important 
benefits upon the yeomanry of Massachusetts; to the 
late and lamented Elias Phinney, a man of large acquisi- 
tion and ripe experience in the various departments of 
this science, and whose personal worth and private vir- 
tues endeared him to all our hearts ; to our beloved Ly- 
man, over whose fresh grave we drop a tear at the loss 
of a distinguished citizen, and benefactor of the widow 
and fatherless, and whose princely donations to the Mas- 
sachusetts Horticultural Society, to the Farm School, 
and to the State Reform School of which he was the 
founder, will ever be held in grateful recollection ; to 
another son of New England, of whom she had a right 



28 



to be proud, as one of the most active and prominent 
promoters of the great art we have united to honor — to 
Henry Colman, who has been so suddenly cut down in 
a foreign land, who for many years was our State Agri- 
cultural Commissioner, whose annual reports to oar 
Legislature, whose works on European Agriculture, 
whose letters and "personal observations" are treasures 
of practical wisdom, and whose recent death near Lon- 
don is a great public calamity. 

But with which of these illustrious men was it not 
secondary to other pursuits? What we now need is 
young men who will devote exclusively to agriculture, 
their talents, their fortunes, and their lives, and will rely 
on posterity to appreciate their improvements and dis- 
coveries, and to honor their memory. 

Here the aspirant for fame has a fairer prospect of 
distinction, than he can find in any kindred art or 
science; first because less progress has been made, and 
secondly because the successful farmer of New Eng- 
land must be well educated for his profession, or he can 
never compete with the cultivator on the prairies and 
intervals of the West. There the soil is new and pro- 
ductive, and nature at present does for him, what edu- 
cation must accomplish for us, and it is capable of 
demonstration, that with the aid of science, the farmer 
of Massachusetts can compete successfully either with 
the southern planter or western cultivator. 

The improvement of agriculture will also do much 
to preserve that conservative and controlling influence 
which New England has ever exerted in the councils 
of the nation. Let the immigrants who throng our 
shores, go and settle in the far West ; but let the sons 
of New England, with their muscular frames, industri- 
ous habits, and generous hearts, divide among them- 
selves the farms of their fathers ; so that with less land 



29 

and higher cultivation they may be able to say with the 
poet, — 

" Rough is her soil ; yet blessed in fruitful stores ; 
Strong are her sons, though rooky are her shores ; 
And none, ah ! none, so lovely to my sight, 
Of all the lands that heaven overspreads with light." 

In some other pursuits, we are in advance of Euro- 
pean nations. Why are we behind any of them in 
this ? Our soil is more fertile, our natural resources 
greater, and our population more industrious and enter- 
prising. They are our superiors because they are bet- 
ter informed in its scientific principles. 

As yet, we have had but few, if any, rivals of Thaer and 
Liebig in Germany, of Boussingault in France, or of 
Davy, Playfair, Johnston, and others in England ; nei- 
ther have we any agricultural colleges or schools, like 
that at Cirencester in England, or Hofwyl in Switzer- 
land ; and every day increases the demand for them. 

True, we have some chemists and geologists, agri- 
cultural newspapers and periodicals, horticultural mag- 
azines, and writers on farming, landscape gardening, 
and pomology, whose works will outlive their age, and 
secure for them the gratitude of their contemporaries 
and of posterity ; but, with these honorable exceptions, 
men and institutions devoted exclusively to agriculture 
are, in our country, yet to be created. 

Nearly one thousand are added to the population of 
New England every week. And how are they to be 
fed? By the surplus productions of the West? But 
how are the latter to be purchased ? By the proceeds 
of the arts and manufactures ? Highly as we prize 
these handmaids of this art ; much as they have bene- 
fited the farmer in increasing the value of his land, and 
creating a ready home market for his productions ; 
much as we think it the duty of our country to pro- 



30 



tect its own industry, and much as we believe that this 
has added to the independence, wealth, and importance 
of Massachusetts (for we have no sympathy with those 
who present one great industrial pursuit as the antago- 
nist of another) ; yet shall the descendants of the Puri- 
tans, of Brewster, of Endicott, and Winthrop, spurn the 
chief inheritance of their fathers, and leave the natural 
resources of wealth and power for the uncertain results 
of trade and manufactures? No! A note of remon- 
strance breaks on my ear ! It comes from a thousand 
cottages and happy firesides ! It rings through our 
valleys and echoes among our hills. No ! ! Our de- 
scendants shall range the hills which their fathers culti- 
vated ; they shall eat the fruits of their gardens and 
orchards, and shall fling on the passing zephyrs a mel- 
ody in praise of agriculture sweeter than any songs 
which Grecian or Roman bards ever sung in honor of 
Ceres. 

As the festivals of that goddess were celebrated with 
great pomp, after she had recalled the attention of men 
to her favorite pursuit, and had taught them " how to 
plough the ground, to sow and reap the corn, to make 
bread, and to take particular care of fruit trees"; so, 
when agriculture shall receive the attention of our citi- 
zens, reformation and education will make our children 
what our fathers were, not merely the nerve, muscle, 
and bone, but the very soul of society. Hence, if we 
would realize our hopes in the generation now coming 
on the stage, we must educate our young farmers. 

There is, even in New England, much land to be 
possessed, but it consists not so much of forests to be 
converted into cultivated fields, as of deteriorated lands, 
bogs, and meadows to be reclaimed, and of barren hills 
and plains to be fertilized, and covered with waving 
grass and grain. For such purposes, science alone is 
adequate and indispensable. 






31 



What wonders has she wrought in other departments 
within the last half century ! With a power and skill 
almost divine, man has seized on the very elements of 
nature, and made them subservient to his will. In 
obedience to established physical laws, he generates an 
agent which works for him in air, earth, or water ; and 
from the tips of his fingers, with as much ease as one 
plays on an instrument, he sends forth the " winged 
lightning " to do his bidding. 

But why should not these agents work for the farmer 
as well as for the mechanic, the manufacturer, or the 
navigator? Why should not steam aid in the produc- 
tion of manure, as well as in the manufacturing of 
acids and alkalies? Doubtless it would ere this if 
thought, enterprise, and capital had sought its applica- 
tion here, with equal zeal and perseverance, as in other 
departments of labor; and perhaps we should to-day 
have been driving our ploughs as well as our cars, filling 
our barns as well as our warerooms and storehouses, 
and expediting the various processes of agriculture, as 
well as those of the other arts, by its magic power. 

We may be deemed chimerical, but we have long 
ago ceased to wonder or be surprised at any discovery 
or invention. The improvement of to-day supersedes 
that of yesterday. No project, of whatever magni- 
tude, whether the building of a railroad from the At- 
lantic to the Pacific ; the tunnelling of the Rocky 
Mountains ; the traversing of old ocean's bed with the 
mystic wires, or winding them round the globe, is too 
great for the enterprise of the nineteenth century. 

Strange indeed that agriculture, which occupies di- 
rectly or indirectly, more than three-fifths of the popu- 
lation of the United States, an art in which capital 
is so safe, and labor so productive, the parent of all 
other arts, and the source whence we derive our daily 
bread, has received no more encouragement from sci- 



32 



ence, from invention and discovery, from men of letters 
and of benevolence. 

If funds are wanted for internal improvements, for 
public or private charity, for the endowment of institu- 
tions of learning or religion, the call is at once respond- 
ed to by the liberal citizens of Massachusetts, in a man- 
ner worthy of themselves, of their origin and destiny. 

But present to them the claims of agriculture, they 
admit its utility and profess an earnest desire for its 
welfare ; yea, they expatiate most eloquently on its im- 
portance and moral influence, and assign it a place 
second to no other calling; yet when you invite them 
to contribute the " needful " for its improvement, they 
find excuses more plenty than gold dust on the banks 
of the Sacramento. 

Why, amid the endless variety of literary and scien- 
tific publications, have we so few on this important 
art? Among the millions annually appropriated by 
Congress for the protection of our territory, or for the 
questionable acquisition of more, why does she make 
no better provision for the cultivation of what we al- 
ready possess ? 

Why has it hitherto been in our own State so diffi- 
cult, nay impossible, to get a bill through our Legisla- 
ture granting ten thousand, or even five thousand dol- 
lars in aid of an agricultural school, when much larger 
appropriations are annually made for the support of 
objects not half, no, not a tenth part so important to 
the Commonwealth ? 

But we rejoice that the day is at hand, when such 
disregard of her true interest, and of the primary pur- 
suit of man, will no longer exist in Massachusetts, of 
world-wide renown for the wisdom of her policy in the 
encouragement of domestic industry. 

Her sense of justice and of personal honor forbids it, 
and loudly demands the improvement for which we 



33 



plead. What! shall the Old Bay State, first in the 
march for liberty, first in legislation, first in internal 
improvements, first in whatsoever is lovely and of 
good report, be overmatched and her glory eclipsed 
by any other State in the Union ? New York, our rival 
in all but politics, schools, and manufactures, is already 
in the field, and vigorously at work. Her Governor, in 
his address for January, 1849, says: — "I cannot too 
strongly recommend the endowment by the State of 
an agricultural school, and an institution for instruc- 
tion in the mechanic arts." The Assembly then in 
session responded to His Excellency's call, and a board 
of able commissioners was appointed to report a plan 
for the establishment of an Agricultural College and an 
Experimental Farm. A similar recommendation also 
distinguished the recent message of the Governor of 
Maine. 

In this struggle for improvement, Massachusetts will 
not be behind her sister States. She is -already wak- 
ing up and moving, and when she puts her hand to 
the plough, there will be no looking back. 

The attention of her sons is already turned to her 
neglected soil, and they are beginning to renovate 
their orchards and forests, to drain their meadows, 
to' cultivate their farms, and to repair their barns and 
granaries, in expectation of years of plenty. We 
would aid and encourage them in this work, by legis- 
lation, by education, and by every means in our power. 

Why should we not have an agricultural depart- 
ment in our national and state governments, as well 
as one for the military? Surely the earth has been 
sufficiently fertilized by blood to yield extra support 
for those whom the sword has spared ! Why are not 
agricultural schools as intimately connected with the 
welfare of the Commonwealth as Normal schools ? The 
latter we cheerfully sustain for the education of a few 



34 



hundred teachers. But who are to educate the thou- 
sands of young farmers who in their turn are to teach 
agriculture to the next generation ? 

We have well-endowed colleges and academies, in- 
stitutions for the promotion of the arts, and for the 
amelioration of the various ills that flesh is heir to ; 
yea, the means of education in other branches are so 
accessible ' that no young man of talents and thirst for 
knowledge need remain in ignorance. 

But, unaccountable as it may seem, there is no insti- 
tution in this Commonwealth, or in the country, where 
a young man can acquire the important art of becom- 
ing a truly intelligent and skilful farmer. 

In France, and some other countries, agricultural in- 
stitutions can be found, supported by government, and 
provided with extensive libraries and with competent 
professors, who, in addition to the instruction which 
they give in their professional chairs, go into the sur- 
rounding country, call together the farmers, and in- 
struct them in their various pursuits. 

The President of the French Republic, in a recent 
communication, commends such institutions to the 
particular care and patronage of the government, and 
announces that a special commissioner has been ap- 
pointed on the subject of agriculture. There are in 
that country one hundred and twenty-two agricultural 
schools, and three hundred minor institutions, for the 
promotion of this art, sharing the patronage of the gov- 
ernment. 

We must have agricultural colleges and schools, or 
we must have departments in our institutions of learn- 
ing, devoted to this art and science. We need an agri- 
cultural department in each of our secular and religious 
newspapers, filled with articles calling the attention of 
the public to the subject, and arousing our agriculturists 
to a true sense of their own interest and welfare. Con- 



35 



ventions should be called, not only in counties, but 
also in the respective towns, for such familiar discus- 
sions as have already been held in the farmers' clubs 
of Needham and Dover. And I would here suggest 
whether this association can accomplish its object in 
any way more readily than by making provision for a 
series of such meetings in the various towns of this 
county during the present autumn and the following 
winter. 

Let our agricultural papers and periodicals continue 
their noble advocacy of this cause ; let the pen of the 
learned write for these and our journals ; let the voice 
of the eloquent advocate this cause in the halls of leg- 
islation, and throughout the length and breadth of our 
land; let efficient hands and warm hearts engage in it, 
and then the public mind cannot slumber ; agricultural 
education will advance ; our seminaries of learning, from 
the common school to the university, will provide a 
place for it in their processes of instruction, and we shall 
have among our yeomanry such farmers as the world 
never before witnessed ; men, who will honor their vo- 
cation, and therefore be honored by society ; the chiefs 
of our land, the glory of our nation. 

In conclusion, allow me, gentlemen, to congratulate 
you on the auspicious commencement of this Associa- 
tion. We now number about five hundred members, 
persons of all political parties, of all religious denom- 
inations, and of every rank and profession. 

Its first exhibition certainly awakens the most pleas- 
ing anticipations, and encourages the hope that, at its 
next anniversary, it will have an enlarged representa- 
tion of members and products from every town in the 
county. 

We rejoice to meet here to-day His Excellency the 
Governor of this Commonwealth, and the many dis- 
tinguished guests who have honored us with their 



36 



presence. We rejoice to meet so many whose hearts 
are moved by this soul-stirring subject, and who by 
then presence, by the articles which they exhibit, and 
the various parts they have to perform, contribute so 
much to the interest, utility, and joy of the occasion. 

Our thanks are also due to those gentlemen whose 
efficient labors have contributed to this result ; to those 
also who have distinguished themselves by the lively 
interest they have manifested in the operations of the 
society ; and especially to the ladies, ever foremost in 
good works, whose presence, skill, industry, and taste, 
add so largely to the attractiveness and completeness 
of our exhibition. 

Encouraged by so worthy an example, we trust that 
all will be induced, at the return of our Olympia, to 
become competitors for prizes ; for if unsuccessful, 
they will enjoy the satisfaction of increasing an honor- 
able competition in what is most laudable and useful. 
Let it never be forgotten that we here meet as friends 
and mutual helpers, dispensing and receiving good, 
without regard to party or sect. Anticipation dwells 
with delight on the realization of our hopes ; upon the 
bright prospects before us ; upon our county converted 
into another Eden ; grass and grain, fruit and flower, 
plenty and peace, purity and bliss, everywhere abound- 
ing. 

May the latter end of this Society be as glorious as 
its commencement has been auspicious ; and may our 
neighbors be able to say of us, as one said of our 
namesake in the mother country, at the formation of 
the English Agricultural Society, Look at Norfolk ! 



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